Tactics Time Chess Newsletter: Action Jackson

Published: Sat, 06/28/14

Newsletter Issue Action Jackson Tactics Time 
Action Jackson

How do you like your ribs? [turning a flamethrower on a bad guy] ~ Carl Weathers in the movie Action Jackson

chess tactics position
 
 
T
 
 
 
his position comes from the game Isaac Martinez vs Jackson Chen, Tri Lakes Open, 2013.
 
   Black to move
 
   Answer below.
 
   Congrats to Boulder Colorado teenager Jackson Chen, who reached the 2200 mark this past week!
 
   It is funny, because before the Trinidad team chess tournament, Life Master Brian Wall and I did a podcast together.  You can listen to it here.  http://tacticstime.com/podcast/life-master-brian-wall-podcast-june-2014/
 
   In that podcast, Brian mentioned how he had to play Jackson Chen when Jackson was rated 2199 and just needed one rating point to make it to National Master.
 
   Brian has a "not on my watch" policy.  He likes to prevent players from getting to master if at all possible.  He says "I don't mind if they go around me, but I don't like it when they go THROUGH me".  Brian defeated Jackson, and set him back on his quest to make it to Master.  Brian has a long list of Colorado players who got CLOSE to making master, but never crossed the line.
 
   I half jokingly suggested that Jackson should have just come down to the Panera Bread tournaments in Colorado Springs, join in the late rounds of the tournament, and claw his way one point at a time to the 2200 mark against weaker opposition, instead of trying to go through players like Brian Wall.
 
   I am not even sure if Jackson got wind of this idea, but it is exactly what he did!
 
   Boulder is about 100 miles away from Colorado Springs, and Jackson came down with his mom to play in rounds 3 and 4 of both the Wednesday night and Thursday night Panera Bread tournaments, run by Shirley Herman.  Colorado Springs has a really high number of rated tournaments given the medium size population - much more than Denver, which is more than twice the size.
   
   It was the Thursday night tournament which put Jackson right at 2200.  You can see the results here:  http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201406265312-12477167
 
   I think that coming down to Colorado Springs was a very smart strategy to get those last few rating points.  Since there are so many rated games played here, people tend to have pretty accurate ratings.  It is very easy here to play 100+ rated games a year, and some people play many more than that.

   Jackson worked hard, and was very diligent in his quest to making it to Master.  Great job!
 

   Here is the game in PGN
 
[Event "Tri Lakes Open"]
[Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"]
[Date "2013.10.06"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Martinez, Isaac"]
[Black "Chen, Jackson"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C05"]
[WhiteElo "2000"]
[BlackElo "2116"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Ngf3 f6 8. Qc2
Be7 9. Bd3 f5 10. g4 fxg4 11. Bxh7 Nf8 12. Bg6+ Kd7 13. Ng1 cxd4 14. Ne2 dxc3
15. bxc3 Bh4+ 16. Kd1 b6 17. Ba3 Ba6 18. c4 Be7 19. Bd3 dxc4 20. Bxc4 Bxc4 21.
Nxc4 Bxa3 22. Nxa3 Ke7+ 23. Ke1 Qd5 24. Kf2 Qf3+ 25. Kg1 Qe3+ 26. Kg2 Qf3+ 27.
Kg1 Rc8 28. Qb2 Ng6 29. Rf1 Qe3+ 30. Rf2 Rhd8 31. Nc3 Nxf4 32. Nc2 Nh3+ 33. Kg2
Qxf2# 0-1
 

   You can play through this game here: http://tacticstime.com/martinez-vs-chen/
 
 
   Answer:
 
   Black has a cute mate in two with 32...Nh3+ 33.Kf1 Qxf2#

 
 
   Happy Tactics!
 
   Your Friend,
 
 
   p.s. Here is a clip from the movie Action Jackson with the above quote - if you like over the top 1980s action movie one liners, this one is great https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7YiQPNMUQ4

 
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